Development Strategy, Urbanization and the Urban-Rural Income Gap in China

发展战略、城市化与中国城乡收入差距(英文)

Analyzing the reasons for the lag in urbanization and the persistent widening of the urban- rural income gap in China from the viewpoint of government development strategy, we find that the government＇s strategy of encouraging the development of capital-intensive sectors has resulted in a relative fall in labor demand in urban areas and thus delayed the progress of urbanization, hampered the effective transfer of the rural population into urban areas and widened the urban-rural income gap. Using the technology choice index （TCI） to measure the degree to which government policy is biased towards capital-intensive sectors, this paper conducts empirical tests of a series of theoretical hypotheses on the basis of Chinese provincial panel data for 1978-2008. We further find that changes in China＇s urban-rural income gap conform to a U-curve pattern, i.e. in the course of economic development, the income gap first decreases then increases.

本文从政府发展战略的视角,研究中国城市化滞后、城乡收入差距持续扩大的原因。结果发现,旨在鼓励资本密集型部门优先发展的政府战略,造成城市部门就业需求的相对下降,进而延缓城市化进程,农村居民不能有效地向城市转移,城乡收入差距扩大。以技术选择指数作为政府对资本密集性部门政策倾斜程度的度量指标,利用1978-2008年中国省级面板数据,对理论假说进行了实证检验。研究还发现,中国城乡收入差距在经济发展过程中呈现出先下降、后上升的U型规律。